Handcraft, steampunk, and other double words

After three days of sweltering weather, we have rain. Wonderful, glorious, grey and gloom rain! No more eating popsicles in my underwear, no more heat induced naps at 5.30, no more taking two showers a day. Lovely.

I even ate soup today for lunch! It was great! You see, this is the reason I moved to Seattle. I adore rain, every last, chilly drop of it. When the sun beats down so ferociously that I can’t think or move, I get upset. Conversely, when the wind breathes down so much ice and bitterness that I can’t think or move, well…I guess I just like being able to operate on a human level without much environmental difficulty.

I Just uploaded all my currently listed Etsy items on GoogleBase. I’m not too familiar with it, but I guess it lists everything in Google’s shopping network? Worth a try, as it only took me about ten minutes with the wonderful help of Let’s Ets. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’m not feeling too inspired to write right now. How about some pretty pictures instead?

I underestimated the corset.I thought one day would be enough time, and suddenly it was Thursday and what happened to my vacation!?But, it’s done, complete with a pound or more of metal boning, a full lining, and finished with handmade bias tape.

Eh, okay, it isn’t completely complete.I can actually put it on, as it is lacking eyelets and lacing.So I can hold it up to my chest, ogle at its resplendent glory, and set it back down.It’s beauty has not been fully realized.All will be set right today, though, with a trip to my friendly neighborhood fabric store and lots of advice.I hope.

So for now, I have some pictures of the almost wonderful armor…erm, corset.

And, for a little tease, the beginnings of the skirt.I have the components for the crinoline cut out, and ready to sew up.I am doing the skirt freehand, off intuition and previous experience.And much crossing of fingers.

Lastly, here is a peek at the fabrics that will be used to make the yummy overskirt.Although this doesn’t *quite* capture the purpleyness of the chiffon, it’s pretty damn close.This was a hard shot for DH to get.

Ahead of me, my fiancee waits, a boutennierre made out of sewing needles and wads of thread stuck jauntily in his lapel. In my hand I hold, not a bouquet, but a giant pair of scissors, the blades waving demurely about my chest. I am wearing sewing machine feet as shoes, and sixteen layers of net in my hair.

I am naked.

Yikes! I’m glad I didn’t actually dream that! No, my last dream was some craziness about people with rubber stomachs. Thats weird enough for me.

Things are progressing quite nicely on my wedding dress. Yesterday was my big ‘attack the petticoat’ day, and it is SO close to being done. One more protective panel of satin on the inside, to protect my delicate legs from the evil scratch of crinoline and I can mark it off the list.

Its pretty ugly…but it gets the job done. Why ugly, you may ask? Well, I cut some corners, and instead of making a separate underskirt to sew the crinoline to, I just sewed it to the top part. With white thread. Very crookedly. I just glad this will be underneath all the prettyness.

In a fit of getting things done yesterday I decided how I am going to do my eyelets- hand bound with a buttonhole stitch. In other words- sixteen hours of my life making circles.

Front View:

Back View:

But they are so beautiful I don’t care how long they take. And when all is said and done, I know that this one will hold up to the test of time. Not like the one I made for my high school homecoming dance, where I ended up with a piece of boning digging into my armpit halfway through the evening. Still, I was the rockingest girl there.

A pirate who occasionally forgets how to use a keyboard, apparently. After at least a week, finally, a new post!

I’ve made little progress in the wedding dress field. I have the crinoline pieces cut, sitting, mocking in the corner of my living room. I’ve come up with my share of excuses, too: I don’t have the right needles. I don’t know what to do next. I’m worried about ruining the fabric. Oops, I seem to have cut my right hand off.

But no more! Tomorrow I dive head first into the world of satin and poof!

In other news, I have a few new items available in my Etsy shop. Like a pirate vest!

I love this thing! As usual, it is made with upcycled fabric and trims. The buckles, even, are rescued from an old pair of pants. Its kind of adjustable, as the straps have three hole choices, and its fitted besides. I could totally storm the seven seas in this.

And another pair of bloomers:

These are a bit simpler, as well as a bit shorter, than my others. Nice though, and pretty easy to wear.

I haven’t been as productive lately. Aah! The Olympics!!! Oh my god! Michael Phelps is my freaking hero, and I don’t even like swimming. Oh, and I made thirty tiny bags to send to a lovely woman in Idaho, who will be putting them in her shwag bags for an upcoming craft show. If you’re in Bellevue, Idaho on Labor Day weekend, check out the Bellevue Labor Day celebrations in City park. Great fun to be had by all.

Tonight we are headed out to Dark Knight to watch Christian Bale’s yummy Batman performance, and the last movie that Heath Ledger made. You know, pre-OD. I’m working on a theory that Batman sent him over the edge. I’ll have more insight after the credits roll, I’m sure.

Anybody know a good recipe for a white frosting? I’m baking an awesome cake tomorrow, as a celebration for said birthday, and I need the super whitey whitest icing, for this great design I thought up. Photos forthcoming of course.

Aaaaand, finally, what I’ve been working on: Bloomers!!! Freaking awesome bloomers, if I do say so myself.

I got a length of this great fabric from Goodwill a few weeks ago. They had four pieces of it, but I only bought one, wanting to try it out before I made a bigger purchase. Bad choice. I love the fabric, but by the time I went back, other people had loved it too. Boohoo… But these are great!

And then, these uber bright beauties! I made these out of fabric left over from making my MIL and apron for mother’s day. I’m not sure how well these baby’s will go over, but I think they are so FUN!

And lastly, a bit mre brown and beautiful. Not quite as pleasurable to work with as the black pinstriped fabric above, but nice nonetheless. I’m particularly fond of them without the ribbon in them. They remind me of an Arabian fairy tale.

Last but not least- I am now a member of the EtsyRain team!!! Yay! I love Seattle! I love Etsy! Wootwootwoot

Hi there!
Well, its been a few verrrry busy days, whipping myself into a flurry of new creations! This is but the first, and I’ll admit rather untimely, installation.

A while back I went to the local goodwill outlet and loaded up on all sorts of cool and interesting things (including a blue sequined jacket that I bought, threw around my room for a while, and subsequently abandoned). So I had a lot of not so cool items just begging to be made wearable! Who am I to resist that?

This is an old shirt, straight outta the 70’s! I don’t know if you can tell from the photos too well, but it has shiny gold pinstripes, and multi colored polka dots! I love it! I added some puff sleeves, and sewed on a complimentary piece on the front with a decorative stitch. Yay for new sewing machine! Hehe, my glasses match the shirt.

And here is a closeup of some of the details. I pleated the sleeves for the puff. I have since started using gathering instead of pleating, but they give such different looks I’m having a hard time deciding which I like better. Oh, and you can really see the detailed stitching here. I like it, the thread matches the shirt perfectly!

This one is similar to the turquoise one, in design. I applied the same kind of appliques on the front, but left off any detailed stitching. And I added puffed sleeves, finished with the same tshirt material. The shirt itself is rather curious. At first the pattern appears to be peacock feathers, but upon closer inspection it looks more like tulips. I don’t know…

And a closeup of the detailing. So on this one I gathered the sleeves instead of pleating, what do you think? Also, I was thinking of adding a stitch of embroidery around the border of the appliques, to match the detailing on the sleeves. I’m a little worried it would be too much, though.

I went to Goodwill on Sunday (gosh, surprise!) hunting for fabric and notions. I’ve been to this particular Goodwill several dozen times over the past six months, and while it is pretty big, I was sure I had at least browsed every section of the store.

I was wrong.

There was still one, lone exception, lying in wait immediately after entering the front door: collectibles. Its very exclusive, they even have their own cash register! Now, I must admit, I was pretty unenthused with the whole bit- old bags, old plates, old shoes, blah blah blah.

My discovery waited for me at the jewelry counter, secure behind a sheet of dirty glass. Cufflinks. Honest to jeebs cufflinks. And an adorable picture to boot.

Crappy crappy picture! Taken on an old camera. I am so used to my HTB’s sexy, super expensive one that this little 3 meg just makes me sad.

I made a couple new pairs of bloomers, but haven’t gotten pictures of them yet. Oi, scheduling. They are fantastic, though, coming soon. They are doubly precious, as they broke a two day creating funk that had begun to get me pretty pissy. After Sunday’s careless hijinks left me with a pair of bloomers with the ruffle sewn on the hip (instead of the leg), Monday gave me huge, puffy, striped bloomers, that are just that side of ridiculous. They look like balloons!

I love sewing. I love making clothes. And the worst thing in the world is failing at a project, wasting a whole days worth of work time when I have such precious little time as it is. But my Tuesday bloomers have wiped the slate clean, and I am eagerly looking forward to an entire day off tomorrow to work for myself, instead of my boss.

Oh, and today I put in the paperwork to open my first retirement fund! Hooray, I’m all responsible and whatnot!